Some were surprised to see that Jason Bay was getting a $1 million deal from the Mariners after he accepted a buyout from the Mets about a month ago, but it turns out that his contract isn’t fully guaranteed.

Geoff Baker of the Seattle Timesreports that if Bay doesn’t make the team out of spring training, he’ll only be guaranteed $500,000. However, if he surprises with a big spring and makes the Opening Day roster, he will get $1 million with the chance to earn an additional $2 million with incentives.

Bay, 34, batted just .234/.318/.369 with a .687 OPS over three seasons with the Mets, including a .165/.237/.299 batting line over 215 plate appearances in 2012. There’s a real chance that he’s done, but that didn’t stop the Mariners from taking a flier. Hey, it worked with Oliver Perez, right?

This is actually pretty common. The margin of error in baseball is small. If a player loses just a little bat speed, he could be done. There are a LOT of guys that aren’t useful baseball players by the time they are 34 yrs old. What is uncommon is for guys to be useful (non-reliever division) after the age of 36.

He was awful before the multiple concussions. Never had a good stretch with the Mets. Only 5 games in 3 years with 2rbis in a game… How many total HR’s on three years?? Mid 20’s….He might benefit just from leaving NY.